Success is interesting, isn’t it? Everybody is going after it, but not everybody has the same idea of what success means.

That being said as the great quote goes, “Success leaves clues.” If somebody else has achieved something similar to what you are trying to achieve, odds are you can too. You are just as human as they are.

So what does it take to be successful at just about anything?

What are the fundamentals that apply across the board no matter what it is you are trying to accomplish?

There are many but first and foremost it begins with daily consistent action. Small changes daily and result in big changes years down the line. That’s what Darren Hardy teaches in his book The Compound Effect. Darren also share’s another key element to achieving your goals, tracking.

Darren suggests you keep a notepad with you at all times so that you can begin to track certain habits of yours. It can be with your money, pull out the notepad every day you spend even a penny and track every expense for a week. It can be with food, every time you reach for a bite to eat, pull out your notepad and track it all.

The big idea behind tracking is it begins to reveal your unconscious behavior. You may not know how much money you spend or how much food you eat in a week until you track your every move. This also gives us the ability to make changes and be able to measure the results.

For the past few years, I have been tracking my daily habits so that I can see how well I’m doing and notice if I fall into any certain patterns. It started off with me just using a simple to-do list that I would keep with me on a piece of paper. I would mark down every time I completed a desired task or made any kind of accomplishment.

Nowadays my tracking is done digitally. I’ve used apps like Habitica and Coach.me. I would suggest either of them for keeping track of your tasks, habits, and goals.